


A New Word For Pain

by MsLanna



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: i need to stop killing sara
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-10
Updated: 2017-07-10
Packaged: 2018-11-30 10:44:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11461953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsLanna/pseuds/MsLanna
Summary: A sad little Evfra ficlet.Not sure if there'll be more non-Reyes MEA drabbles, but in case there are, they will go here. Just a warning.





	A New Word For Pain

“Welcome back, Jaal ama Daarav.” Evfra looked at his old colleague, companion, friend. It was strange to have him back in the Headquarters of the Resistance. He didn’t look well either. The skin around his eyes was raw, his lips tight.

“It is good to be back,” Jaal replied. His tone was flat. He would have preferred to stay with the human Pathfinder. Everybody knew that. Ryder had been a nuisance, but a very successful one.

Evfra pushed that thought away. “The Resistance has made great progress. You will find a lot of opportunities for your career.”

Jaal just nodded.

It was no compensation for their loss and he knew it. They both knew it. But Jaal had the comfort to choose whether to throw himself recklessly into danger or bury himself under too much work. Efvra had his place. There was nowhere for him to go, nowhere to turn.

Ridiculous.

But true. His mind flashed back to the first meeting. The impossibly slim and tiny human standing before him as if she had earned that right already. The small toss of her head to move the unruly fur from her face. Hair. It was a curious thing, that hair.

“You can ask,” her voice echoed in his head.

“Ask what?” he would not even admit to staring. Evfra bristled at the thought of asking anything of the intruder.

“How it feels,” she grinned. Her teeth were very white between her lips. “The hair,” she went on and actually bent her head in his direction. “Go ahead.”

Evfra had decided that for science the sacrifice was acceptable. And hair was soft; very, very soft.

“Don’t worry,” Sara had assured him. “I won’t ask anything in exchange. I have my own angara for that.” Her grin had split her face and she had left.

His hand still tingled at the memory. A memory that stung in a way he would not admit. Her own angaran. He had objected to that wording naturally. Jaal belonged to nobody but himself. But that had been only one reason.

“Why do you bother me, human?” It had been one of the last attempts to discourage her from coming. It had not worked. Ryder had babbled something about being allies and having to work together closely and her eyes had never left his face for a second.

Evfra wasn’t stupid. He knew body language and she wasn’t even trying to hide her attraction. Such a foolish notion. But if there was one thing Sara Ryder didn’t give a damn about, it was being foolish.

“I’m an alien in an alien galaxy,” she chuckled. “Of course I’ll look foolish.”

Oh the things they had achieved with her foolishness. Havarl was in recovery, Voeld was slowly warming up, several planets had shown signs of turning habitable throughout the cluster. All because of what one tiny person foolishly believed.

“I know you don’t want to be friends,” one of her last visits, vivid as the day it happened, burnt into his memory since the news reached him. “But can’t you just be nice for once? We’re allies, on the same side. Is it that hard?”

Evfra had snorted. Friends indeed. Her posture had been so hopeful despite all previous encounters. Such dark eyes, almost as big as that of an angaran. Not that it mattered. They could never be friends. She was a walking miracle, a tiny supernova. One step to close and everything around her caught fire.

As if he didn’t see the look on Jaal’s face as he followed the human around. He had seen that look before; seen it on an alien face looking at him, asking. Why can’t we be friends?

Because he didn’t want to burn. It was easy as that. Evfra sighed and opened the next set of reports. So many best laid plans. He hadn’t burnt. Instead he had smouldered in silence, out of view and all alone. It had not helped. Not really. It did not help now.

Jaal-, Jaal got closure. He attended the state funeral for the human Pathfinder, free to mourn her as his captain and friend. Even the Moshae was free to show her sorrow. Evfra had felt lonely in the angaran delegation. His contempt could not be broken, not even one first, one last time. The scowl had been real, but not directed at Ryder.

Sara.

It was a beautiful word for pain.


End file.
